On micro blogs and online forums, people have uploaded and forwarded photos of the Chinese city, representing it as “The Factory of the World” in the booming southern province of Guangdong, revealing its history as it developed from a fishing village to a manufacturing and logistics behemoth.

“The Dongguan You May Not Know” called for local residents to be proud of their city and to tell the world about it.

“We produce one-fifth of the world’s digital products; we destroyed the country’s opium here; we topped the Chinese Basketball Association league eight times; we attracted 10 million migrants…” said captions of the photos uploaded when the city was mocked as China’s “sex capital” after prostitution busts and huge media exposure on Sunday.